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Our Unton-a&ofai «Mft. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED IN 



TRINITY CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



THANKSGIVING DAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1850. 



THE REV. C. M. BUTLER, D. D., RECTOR. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED BY JNO. T. TOWERS, 

1850. 









WAsm\GTON, D. C, November 29, 1850. 
Reverend and DeA; Sir: — Having heard, with exceeding satisfaction, the eloquent, 
pious, and patriotic Thanksgiving Address, delivered by you yesterday, we express but 
the general wish of your auditors, that you will please furnish a copy for publication, 
believing, under the peculiar circumstances of the country, its general dissemination 
could not but have a highly beneficial effect upon the community at large. 
Most sincerely, your obedient servants, 

J. BARTRAM NORTH, 
A. H. LAWRENCE, 
AARON LEGGETT, 
H. P. JOHNSON, 
E. L. CHILDS, 
W. M. MORRISON, 
FITZHUGH COYLE, 
Rev. C. M. Butler, D. D., Washington, D. C. 



Washington, D. C, December 3, 1850. 
Gentlemen : — I yield my Thanksgiving Discourse to your request, with the regret 
that I should have been compelled to treat so great a topic with a rapid pen ; and with 
a misgiving that your interest in its subject has led you to overestimate its value. As, 
however, the demand for its publication has been repeatedly made to me, since the re- 
ceipt of your letter, I do not feel at liberty to withhold it from the press. 

Very faithfully, your obedient servant, 

C. M. BUTLER. 
Messrs. J. H. North, A. H. Lawrence, &c. 



DISCOURSE. 



The name which this day bears indicates our theme. 
"Thanksgiving for National blessings" is the name of the 
day ; and National blessings are the subject of our dis- 
course. 

National blessings 1 They are as large as the land 
we occupy. They are as varied as its climes, and soils, 
and products. Yet, with all their variety, they have, as a 
whole, the same individuality as the broad continent over 
which they are spread. 

Since the last Thanksgiving-day, our country has 
stretched itself from sea to sea. An American citizen 
may pass, East and West, four thousand miles, and see 
the sun rise over and set behind no hills that are not his. 
The sun greets us with his morning salutation from the 
Atlantic, and breathes over us his farewell evening bene- 
diction from the Pacific. " It is a good land and a large." 

The very extent of our land — the occupation of a coun- 
try so gigantic by one race, of one origin and tongue; and 
their union under one system of free government and just 
law, like that under whose shelter we are thriving, is itself 
a subject for vast thanksgiving. 

It is a new thing in the history of the world. Great 
Empires, in past times, have been composed of diverse 
people, whose races, histories, languages, institutions, arts, 
sciences, and general culture, have been most various and 
conflicting. They have been conglomerates, fused into a 



shapeless and lieterogeneous mass by the fires of despo- 
tism. The .style in which those vast Empires were addressed 
was this — " Nebuchadnezzer the King, unto &YI people, iia- 
tions, and languages." Such were the Assyrian and the 
Babylonian Empires. Such was the dominion of Alexan- 
der. Such the Roman Empire. Such the Kingdoms of 
Charlemaigne and of the Saracens. Such is the character 
of the present British Empire. Never before was there a 
land so vast as ours, under one government, inhabited by 
one people, speaking one language, and subject to one law. 
It is a new thing in the history of the world. 

And it is a thing which it required a long history to 
accomplish. God preserved this continent from being in- 
habited, until, in another land, men were gradually trained 
to begin the work which is here and now in progress. 
Long and dreary Avas the road, slow and difficult the 
advance, to those principles of religious and civil free- 
dom, which, under God's blessing, our Fathers reached; 
and whose adoption in this new land, on this large unoc- 
cupied field, have made us what we are. 

At the time of the Reformation gross darkness rested 
on the people. They were ignorant alike of their real 
religious and political rights and duties. But when light 
is let into a human soul, it will not shine, at a monarch's 
bidding, on a single point, and leave all others in their 
olden darkness. Its direct rays may be gathered there, 
but its diffused brightness will illumine all the building. 
Henry would let one broad beam of light into the minds 
of his people that they might Bee beneath it the nion- 
Btrousness of the Pope's claim to spiritual supremacy. 
Man} saw it, and saw, moreover, by the same light, the 
(ijual monstronsness of his own assumptions. And nou 
\\le a one thoughtful and brave spirit after another began 



to discern and proclaim their wrongs and rights — when 
the vague yearnings and dim questionings of oppressed 
generations, worked themselves out at last into clear 
consciousness, and definite conviction, and firm resolve — 
when those claims to the God-given and inalienable rights 
of men and nations which were but muttered under 
Elizabeth, and spoken with " bated breath" under James, 
rang out with clarion clearness in the startled ear of 
Charles — then the creatures of power began to arrange 
the stupidities of traditional despotism into a system. 
The slavish scheme of kingly government by divine right 
was then matured by the sycophantic divines and states- 
men of the days of the Stuarts. Salmasius, on the Con- 
tinent, Sir Robert Filmer and the Non-juring Bishops and 
Divines, in England, were its principal supporters. They 
claim that in direct descent from the grey Patriarchs of 
the world, kings inherit an absolute, unbounded, irrespon- 
sible authority; and that passive, unquestioning obedience 
to these delegates of Heaven, is but true loyalty to God. 
Greater slavishness of spirit than that which could devise 
such a scheme, it is difficult to conceive. It may become 
a duty to bow in practiced sulmission to an absolute au- 
thority. But that men should elevate such authority into 
the venerable seat of law; that they should see in mere 
power an overawing augustness to inspire their reverence ; 
that they should waft towards such a shrine the incense of 
their praise; that they should hail this vile Herod of 
despotism as a God, because his golden armor of prosperity 
and power, glitters in the sunlight — all this surely shows 
the abjectness of man, and proves that Satan spoke a 
mocking lie when he declared, " Ye shall be as Gods." 

These views were confuted, with superfluous power and 
logic, by Milton, and Locke, and Sidney. In the place of 



it another and more liberal system was substituted. Tliey 
Bought to find an ultimate ground for the authority of 
governors and the rights and duties of the governed in a 
supposed social compact. Men were contemplated as iu a 
state of nature, each man standing alone, and having cer- 
tain rights, and all agreeing to enter into organized society, 
and to give up a certain portion of their rights for the sake 
of the security and the advantages which a governed com- 
munity provides. By this supposed compact the extent of 
the prerogatives of the magistrate, and the immunities of 
the citizen were to be determined. This theory, though it 
involves some just principles of government, has many and 
great defects. It has no historical basis. It is a mere 
theory, having never been realized in the known life of 
any nation. It is not written down, like " Magna Charta" 
and " The bill of rights? Like what is called natural reli- 
gion, it depends on what each man finds his own mind to 
say upon the subject; and therefore its principles are fluc- 
tuating and uncertain. It furnishes no fixed and sure 
basis for such a practical administration of government as 
shall give men just law and regulated liberty. The specu- 
lative politicians of the Revolution of 1GS8 endeavored to 
shape their practical reforms, and to take their enlarged 
liberties, from this then favorite scheme of political philoso- 
phy. But at a later period the reforms that have been 
urged and the ameliorations which have been effected in 
the British Constitution, have been based upon a principle 
which was obtained from us — which was born in this 
Western World — the great, new, true, imperishable prin- 
ciple, the right of men, under God, to govern themselves — 
the right of living men to say that they themselves will 
determine the constitution and laws under which they will 
live. The men of England, of whom we speak, said to 



each other, " let us find out from the conditions of the so- 
cial compact what are our rights and duties." But our 
Fathers said, " Come, brothers, let us decide what we shall 
do — what we, free men, shall adopt, as our constitution, 
and our law." 

And this brings me towards the point at which I would 
have you pause in admiration of the over-ruling Provi- 
dence of God. From the midst of the despotic theories 
and practical oppressions of the mother land, came a body 
of colonists to our shores, who were, for the most part, 
earnest and religious men, whose resistance and hatred of 
man's tyranny, were coupled with a most absolute loy- 
alty of spirit to God's rule, to duty, and to conscience. 
Here it was, in our colonies, that the great principle of 
which I have spoken — the right of men to govern them- 
selves — was born and grew. It was a lesson in advance of 
those learned by their liberal brethren in the mother land. 
They reached it by virtue of the more quickened and in- 
dependent thought which their position favored ; and no 
less by the peculiarities of their colonial condition, by 
which they were enabled, and sometimes obliged, to realize 
the principle in their practice. This principle it was, 
which lay beneath the rallying cry of the Kevolution — 
"No taxation without representation." This principle 
was embodied in every State Constitution, and in- the Ar- 
ticles of the Confederation. It constitutes the introduc- 
tory sentence of our present Constitution. It is the first 
political lisp of our children. It is the last and grandest 
conclusion of the high speculations of our statesmen. It 
is the rule of all legislation. It is the test of all measures. 
And, as all things, good and true, are most apt to be 
abused, it is brought forward to cover and consecrate all 
wild, disorganizing, and selfish schemes, which would sub- 



10 

stitute tin- individual for the collective will, and self-license 
-without law, for self-government by law. 

On this day of National Thanksgiving, when our recent 
enlargement as a nation, and our present peculiar condition 
invite us to the theme, we call your attention to 

I. 

The character of the fundamental principle of our Gov- 
ernment ; to 

II. 

The wonderful Providence of God by which it has been 
enabled "to spread undivided" and " operate unspent " 
over a country so vast and varied ; and to 

III. 

The great advantage to themselves and to the world, 
of the Union under one system of free government and 
law, of one great people, inhabiting one great land, whose 
main boundaries are oceans, and which includes within it- 
self all the climates of the world. 

I. 

It is needful, even in our own land, to vindicate the fun- 
damental principle of our Constitution — the right of self- 
government, It has of late, in Europe, and at home, been 
associated with so many Godless theories, such evil pas- 
sions, and Buch disorganizing measures, that it is important 
to rescue it from misuse and misunderstanding. 

1. A- adopted and understood by our fathers, this princi- 
ple did not involve the idea that man owes obedience but 
to 6v//', and that adflB the ultimate ground and reason and 
law of hig responsibility. The term " self-governmenV 1 has 



11 

been thus sometimes misinterpreted, and sometimes misrep- 
resented. It has been thought to be a kind of impiety 
that man, the creature of God, should talk of the right of 
governing himself. It was- not, however, a throwing off of 
allegiance to all authority but that of his own reason and 
will and conscience, that this term intended to express. 
The claim was not in opposition to the just authority of 
God, but to the groundless, usurped, and tyrannical autho- 
rity of man. 

2. Nay, the principle as it was given to us by our fathers, 
and as we should hold it, might be rather named the duty 
than the right of self-government. First of all the men in 
whose souls this truth was born, recognized the duty of ab- 
solute obedience to God. Nothing must be allowed to stand 
in the way of their duty to Him. Then it must be their 
right, aye, and their duty, to disown allegiance to any gov- 
ernment and law which prohibits them from doing their 
duty to Him ; it must be their right and their duty to gov- 
ern themselves in such a way as that they may be obedient 
to the government of God. Such was the spirit in which 
this great truth originated. It was not in a spirit of 
lawlessness and wilfulness, and of reference to self as the 
ultimate ground of all rights and duties ; but it was in a 
spirit of devoted loyalty to law — the highest law which 
can govern a moral and responsible creature — that the 
principle of self-government was born. 

3. Nor is this principle to be sneered into contempt by 
the assertion that it involves a want of infelt and practical 
reverence for law — that it robs law of its sanctity and makes 
it level with the mere obligation of a bargain. On the 
contrary, to the laws which self-governing men enact 
for themselves, and for their own government, there are 
sanctions of peculiar dignity and power. The sneer pro- 



12 

ceeds on the supposition thai laws made for men by a 
power above them, in which they have no share, will se- 
cure an homage and reverence which they cannot feel for 
constitutions and enactments which proceed from them- 
selves. Let us see. Take some despotic Monarchy. The 
law comes down to the people from the strong palaces of 
power. It is flashed in their eye from the gleaming points 
of myriad bayonets and swords. It is thundered in their 
ear by the artillery and the drum. I know that for ages, 
down-trodden men have gazed with stupid awe on this ar- 
ray of power, and bowed with deep submission before its 
awful mandates. But what sort of reverence is this to 
law ? It is the craven stoop of the spirit before mere 
power ! It is a government which is outside of the soul, 
and does not fix itself in the innermost convictions of the 
mind, the true homage of the conscience, and the warm af- 
fections of the heart. But when a great people thus en- 
act — " we in order to form a more perfect union, establish 
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the com- 
mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or- 
dain and establish this Constitution" — when this enact- 
ment comes from a nation of whom I am one, then I hear 
a voice of law which sounds to my soul like the majestic 
echo of the voice of God. It does not appeal to my fears. 
Il does not crush my spirit into abjectness by the rod of 
power. But I acknowledge it as an obligation which I per- 
sonally have assumed; a real duty which I recognize and 
feel ; a grand privilege which I enjoy. Now here is rev- 
erence for law, the only reverence which deserves the 
name. The principle of obedience has seated itself within 
the soul. It grasps the conscience. It Bways the whole 



13 

moral nature. The grandest homage, that of intelligent 
conscious moral obedience, is rendered to the law. 

4. Nor is the true principle of self-government irreli* 
gious in itself, or in its tendency. Some good men have 
been led to fear, from its abuses, that it is a proud and 
Godless scheme, which cannot be reconciled with the prin- 
ciples of the Word of God. It will be an evil thing alike 
for God's truth and Church, and for the Kepublic, if such 
a sentiment widely prevail among pious men. It is heard 
sometimes in conversation, though seldom seen in print. 
But if it prevail, it will array the State against the Church 
as adverse to freedom. It will make the Church regard 
the State as based on principles hostile to the progress of 
the gospel. Better, far, that it should be cordially recog- 
nized as a principle perfectly consistent with the religion 
of the Savior. Better that it should be rescued from false 
glosses, and shown to be a system into which the religious 
mind may throw itself with unhesitating earnestness. 

Surely it may do so. Surely this system, rightly view- 
ed, is every way favorable to religion. We have seen that 
it was the work of religious men. We see that it guaran- 
ties the absolute liberty of every soul to serve and worship 
God according to its own convictions. Nor does it make 
meaningless, as some have supposed, those many Scriptures 
which declare to us that the powers which be, are ordained 
of God ; that we should be subject to governors and pow- 
ers for the Lord's sake ; and that those who resist the 
power, resist the ordinance of God. There is a harmony 
between these two truths, viz : that men have a right to 
form for themselves a government, and yet, that govern- 
ment is the ordinance of God, and obedience to its laws, 
obedience to him. That harmony should be plainly shown 
and fully recognized. We should not allow ourselves to 



14 

Stand in doubt whether our whole system of government 
is an organized revolt against the authority of Heaven; 

Government /van ordinance of God. It is his will that 
in. 11 should exist in organized and governed society. Civil 
society, therefore, is as clearly a divine institution as is the 
family, Bnt the particnlarj^wvft which organized society 
shall assume, is not prescribed by God. He has not fixed 
it l>v divine command, in the form of a Monarchy, an Oli- 
garchy, or a Republic. The form of government is the 
ordinance of man. Government itself is the ordinance of 
God. Now, we have no reason to doubt but that that 
form of government which best secures the rights and hap- 
piness of man is, in his regard, the most acceptable and best. 
Yet lie himself has set us the example, in his dealings with 
the JewSj in granting them a King, of allowing a govern- 
ment to be established, which was not, in itself, the best, 
or the most acceptable to Him, but the best which the then 
condition of people would enable them to enjoy. So that 
1 >i\ inity belongs to the State and. not to the form of the 
State. To us, then, as Republicans, who have framed, our 
own system of government, belong all these declarations 
which aver that government is the ordinance of God, and 
that obedience to its commands, is obedience to Him. 
We can take them and obey them in all the fullness and 
sacredness of their meaning. As the family relation is 
divine, and the duties connected with it the subjects of 
divine command, so is the State from (rod, and allegiance 
to it is obedience to Ilim. And in this view, patriotism 
and devotion to our free Constitution receive sanction and 
obtain sarivdness from the Word of God. 

a. The result then is thai this great principle is the " last 
word" of political science. It is the latest and best birth 
of time. It is that ultimate truth in government towards 



15 

which all efforts for freedom — all partial emancipations from 
tyranny have tended, but have never reached. It is a les- 
son in advance of any learned in the struggles for freedom 
in our mother-land. It is in its own nature grounded on 
supreme loyalty to God. It is not without law, but crea- 
tive of law. It includes highest and truest reverence for 
the law which it creates. It is consistent with and it is a 
principle through which may be expressed a deep and true 
religiousness of spirit. Favored indeed is the land in which 
such a principle is vital, and practical, and pervading. 
That it originated and lives here, is a proof of a degree of 
national advancement, in that which constitutes true pro- 
gress, beyond that of all other nations of the earth. Un- 
der it prosperity must spring, human rights be best guard- 
ed, the human powers best developed, and human happi- 
ness most widely spread. Then is human nature developed 
to its loftiest stature, and best proportion, and most real 
strength, when it is placed under the influence of the Gos- 
pel and the grace of God, in a system of government where 
man's liberty is held as his birth-right, and loyalty to the 
State is acknowledged as his own concious moral duty to 
just laws, framed by himself, in obedience to the moral laws 
that bind him as a creature of God. Laws when thus 
framed are elevated from the rank of "ordinances of man," 
which they are in their form, to " ordinances of God," which 
they are in their essence and their obligations. 

II. 

And now let me call your attention to the wonderful 
providence of God by which this principle, unknown in the 
old world, and for which the old world was unprepared, 
was made to grow up and spread over this broad land. 



1G 

1. Our first train of remark, in this connection, would 
naturally be that which we have already made in tracing 
this great idea of constitutional Belf-govemment* We saw 
how men were prepared in England by its history to come 
to this country with a strong sense of their rights and 
wrongs; and how their circumstances in this wild land, 
favored the growth of the great political truth on the pre- 
valence of which the future civil and social progress and 
happiness of the race depends. How can we fail to see in 
thai -<iies of events the hand of God! There was no 
country in Europe in which this great principle could have 
worked itself out into practice for centuries to come. This 
i> pr< >ved by the history of the Commonwealth of England, 
which ran, immediately and inevitably, into a one-will 
despotism. Therefore, the men who had advanced far- 
therest towards this principle w r ere transplanted to a new 
and almost unoccupied continent. How wonderfully did 
God keep this great land, far off in the ocean, from being 
discovered and occupied, until he had prepared men to 
take it in possession. And when they were placed here, 
how did God, by the force of the circumstances in which 
they were placed, teach them to lay hold of the great 
truth of man's right and duty, under God, of framing the 
laws to which he should be subject ! The lesson was, as it 
were, forced upon him. He learned it, w r e may say, by 
having first been compelled to practice it. The colonial 
legislatures, familiar with the wants of the colonies, too 
distanl from the seat of power to be overawed by its au- 
thority, or to rely habitually upon its counsel and direc- 
tion, Learned the right of self-government by its practice, 
rather than by any speculations on its justice anterior to 
it- enjoyment. Thus did God's providence train the men 
of the colonial days for that unequalled display of political 



17 

wisdom and sagacity which was developed previous to, 
and during, and subsequent to, the Revolution. 

2. Nor in this thing alone has God shown himself to be 
with us as our guide and teacher. He was with our Fa- 
thers in the formation of our present Constitution. If God 
was ever visibly in history it was surely when our Fathers 
fixed upon our present form of government. The union of 
many independent States, under one General Government, 
is the most marked peculiarity of our political condition. 
It is as new, as a mode of union of States, as is the princi- 
ple of the right of self-government for the single State. It 
is a wonderful and strange arrangement. It is consid- 
ered by all thoughtful and philosophic minds, at home and 
abroad, that have studied and understand it, as the master- 
piece of political wisdom. It will be, we believe, the ad- 
miration of the world for centuries to come, whether it 
shall be realized in other theatres, or limited to our own. 
It reconciles apparent contradictions. It realizes seemingly 
conflicting results, in that it leaves each of the States in 
their seperate political rights and organizations, while it 
binds them all in one general government, which is as 
effective for all good purposes, as if it were a consolidated 
nationality; and as favorable to all the real rights and 
liberties of the States, as if it were but a loose league of 
sovereignties. The commentaries on this feature of the 
Constitution, of some of the ablest minds under whose 
counsels it was adopted, are regarded as the most golden 
sayings of our masters of political sentences. It is this 
feature of our government which enables it to stretch itself 
from sea to sea, without gathering dangerous strength at 
the centre, or exhibiting as dangerous weakness, by its 
weight, at the circumference. It is a system of wheels 
within wheels; but, like the mystic structure of Ezekiel, 



18 

they are nil informed l>y one spirit, and the various inner 
play of the separate wheels is carried on beneath a great 
and all-embracing wheel, and all of the combined parts 
move on in the same direction. 

3. Bnt if ever men were led by the hand of Providence 
and taught, step by step, what next to do, it was the men 
who framed this Government — a Government in which, 
when they constructed it, they discerned much wisdom, 
but in which there were more and greater excellencies than 
they could see. There was no political Jupiter, out of 
whose brain this Minerva sprang, full grown. Read the 
history of it and you will see how unconsiously, beyond 
their own purposes or expectations, were men led on to its 
adoption. First, a few men from different States met to 
talk of trade, and separated with the idea of a united na- 
tionality. And when the Convention was formed, how 
singularly did obstacles to union, seemingly the most in- 
superable, give way! How did God smooth the way for 
the adoption of article after article, of that grand charter 
of our national liberty and law ! And what is most re- 
markable and instructive to observe is, that great as were 
the wisdom, sagacity, and foresight of the framers of that 
immortal instrument, they were not possessed of it all when 
they began their discussion, but they were taught much of it, 
day by day, and lesson by lesson, here a little and there a lit- 
tle, as the debates progressed. They were forced into many 
of their measures which have proved the wisest, by the stress 
of the providential circumstances in which they were placed* 
They did not at once adopt them, because they saw the 
wisdom of them; but they saw the wisdom of them after 
they were forced to adopt them. The existing state of 
things set them on the search for some principles and 
measures, which but for that state of things, they might 



19 

never have adopted. It is evident, then, that our Consti- 
tution was not a manufacture, but a growth. It was not 
made, but it became. 

4. In reference to this very feature of the relation of the 
separate States to the General Government, which is now 
regarded as the crowning excellence of the Constitution, 
was the interposition of God most singularly manifested. 
The facts have been often detailed, and therefore, a gene- 
ral reference to them will suffice. On the question, I be- 
lieve, of the representation of the States in the Senate, the 
Convention came to a pause. Agreement on the subject 
seemed impossible. The whole plan of Union seemed to 
be on the verge of ruin. States threatened to withdraw. 
Under circumstances of great excitement and alarm, the 
venerable Franklin counselled an adjournment for some 
days, and recommended that when they again assembled, 
their deliberations should be opened with prayer. It was 
done. The dissenting States, at the re-opening of the 
Convention, agreed to the measure they had so strenuously 
resisted, rather than that the Union should not be formed. 
Thus against the preferences of many, even of a majority, 
and after the acknowledgment that they were at their wits 
end, and a resort to God in prayer, was that feature of the 
Union perfected, which is now regarded, with scarcely no 
dissenting voices, as its crowning excellence and wisdom. 
Say not that God was not there ! Say not that this came 
altogether from the wisdom of our fathers ! Rather let us, 
on this day of National Thanksgiving, gratefully confess 
that then the Lord of Hosts was with us, the God of Jacob 
was our refuge. 



20 

III. 

And now having vindicated the character of our funda- 
mental principle of government, and shown its truth, its 
moral elevation, its religious value, and its influence on 
national progress and elevation, and having noticed the 
wonderful providence of God in having provided a birth- 
place, a home, and a theatre for the extension of this 
ameliorating principle, embodied in political institutions of 
singular wisdom and great practical excellence; let me di- 
rect your attention to some of the great advantages to 
themselves and to the world, of the Union, under one sys- 
tem of government and law, of a people of almost entirely 
one race and tongue, inhabiting one wide and wondrous 
land. I say to some of those advantages, for they are 
greater and more numerous than I can describe or know. 

1. Well did the Father of his Country say, that "the 
unity of government which constitutes us one people is a 
main pillar in the edifice of our real independence" Our 
real independence depends not only upon our power to 
preserve our rights ; but it is great and real in proportion 
to the absence of necessity to use that power. If I, stand- 
ing alone, have just power enough to defend myself from 
an enemy, and am yet compelled to use it all, I may say 
thai I am independent of him — and it will be, in one sense, 
true. But if I am in union with a band of men, so that 
my enemy would not molest me, nor call upon me to exert 
my own power <>r that of my confederates, then would my 
independence be more complete and real. The former 
state of safety, on condition of constant vigilance and ex- 
ertion, could scarcely, with propriety, be called real inde- 
pendence. Soil would be with States, if they stood alone. 
Their independence, singly, could not be so absolute as 
their independence is when united. 



21 

2. And how vastly is the prosperity of all the States 
increased by Union under one government ! The material 
interests of the country are thus incalculably subserved. 
In a greater variety of ways than can occur to my mind — 
from the interchange of the products of the various por- 
tions of the country with no commercial restrictions — from 
the common use of every improvement and invention in 
the sciences and arts — from a uniform system of customs, 
and taxes, and in a thousand other ways, the wealth and 
prosperity of each section of the country will be prodi- 
giously increased. The best and most convincing com- 
mentary on this head would be a history of the Confedera- 
tion. And let it be remembered that, in proportion to a 
country's prosperity, will be the number who can secure 
the leisure and means of education, and of general culture 
and improvement. 

3. In Union lies our best security for peace. Foreign 
wars are for us henceforth, happily, almost an impossibility. 
But if, instead of one broad fraternal united government, 
we were divided into many States, how difficult it would 
be, with inevitable jealousies, diverse interests, mutual re- 
proaches — how difficult to preserve peace ! Nay, how im- 
possible ! And the manifold and fearful evils of this state 
of things I need not attempt to portray. How it would 
retard industry, check education, destroy religion, consume 
the resources of the country, multiply swarms of idle and 
greedy officials, corrupt the morals, and destroy the pros- 
perity of every State, yourselves at once can see. When 
Israel and Judah separated, each State maintained an ar- 
my double the number previously maintained by both 
united ; and from that period each kingdom was engaged 
in destructive wars, and both hastened, with rival speed, 
to ruin. However it may have been with us in times past, 



1 9 

it is certain that with our present seemingly conflicting 
interests — only Beemingly and temporarily conflicting, ire 

believe -onr condition, without union, would be one of ac- 
tive war, or of armed and suspicions truce. And war be* 
twe u the different portions <>i" this Confederacy would be 
one of the most saddening and dismal pages of the history 
of tlii- earth. Never were a people so interwoven by the 
nearest and tenderest relationships as we are over all this 
broad Continent. It would send a personal sorrow into 
every household. It would gather a vast national woe 
over all the Continent. It would set loose wild ruin to 
stride and trample, with ferocious footsteps, over all the fair 
fields and peaceful dwellings of the land. And in that 
warfare there would fall more illustrious victims than ever 
before strewed a battle-field. There would fall such a na- 
tional prosperity and happiness as the sun never shown 
upon before. There would fall, shrieking, the hopes of 
the millions of struggling victims of oppression in every 
laud. There would fall the fair and venerable forms of 
liberty, justice, security, morality, and religion, and over 
their unhonored graves military despotisms would flaunt 
their bloody l»anners, and lead on their abject myrmidons 
to new contests and <till desolating victories. Oh, what 
an unspeakable gift it is from God, that this day, through 
the immense length and breadth of our land, we can gather 
in (mi- houses <»t' prayer, and praise him as a united people! 
AYli.ii devoul thanksgivings do we owe to him — oh, (Jod, 
give us grace to render it! — that we arc still the United 
States ! 

4. But even if it were possible t«> avoid these woes if 
disunited, ye1 by the Union of this great land, under one 
system of government, what increased diffusion is given to 
education — how truth flies from point to point — how the 



discovery of one becomes the property of all — how the 
large fields and the magnificent rewards opened to genius 
and perseverance stimulate the faculties to their highest 
exercise ! How, too, under such a state of things, do the 
ordinary and narrow local prejudices and feelings which 
are the growth of peculiar and prescriptive institutions 
based on no fixed principles of law and justice — prejudices 
which retard the discovery of truth — how do these, under 
such circumstances, give way ! There is no reason in seem- 
ing interest, or in self-defence, why we should uphold any 
false principles in government, in morals, and in science. 
"What a field is opened here for the spread of truth and 
the developement of mind ! All great truths and princi- 
ples are free to perambulate the land. We know that not 
only nations separated by a mountain chain " abhor each 
other," but that systems of philosophy, morality, and 
science, separated by no greater distance, abhor each other 
too, and are in bitter conflict. " Three degrees of latitude," 
says Pascal, "upset all the principles of Jurisprudence." 
Not only does such a Union foster education because, by se- 
curing peace, it gives the means and opportunity for its 
enjoyment, but because it diffuses just principles over all the 
land ; it breaks up prejudices ; it will not let errors lurk 
and work in corners, but drags them out and makes them 
speak and vindicate themselves before a great and saga- 
cious tribunal. The false systems that might have con- 
tinued to parade and impose themselves on little cliques 
and communities, are not allowed to remain there, but are 
placed, by the press, upon a conspicuous stand, where all 
the nation can see and hear them, and are there made to 
give an account of themselves ; and are questioned and 
cross-questioned, so that all may judge whether they are 
true or false. Never before was there a country so favor- 



24 

able for the discovery and spread of true principles on 
every subjecl of practical concernment or theoretical spec- 
ulation. 

5. And this L-ads me to remark, that such a broad, va- 
rious country, united into one, is calculated to develop tlie 
genera] national character into a largeness and strength 
which it could not otherwise attain. It would seem that 
in Buch a country, narrowness of mind could not be a na- 
tional characteristic. The wise Ulysses was the wiser for 
having seen so many men and many lands. And vast 
numbers of our citizens, keeping within the bounds of their 
own country, have equalled Ulysses in his wanderings, if 
not in his wisdom. This constant interchange of views 
with men of different minds and of different culture — this 
personal insight into things, which often show us that they 
are neither so bad nor so good as we supposed — all these 
advantages must give breadth and liberality to character. 
And I think he must be greatly prejudiced, who will not 
grant this to be a national characteristic. Old bed-ridden 
notions and prejudices which turn and groan and fret and 
die, on the minds of men who are in contracted spheres, 
cannot be allowed to lie long on the restless minds of the 
citizens of a Republic such as ours. We are called in de- 
rision, sometimes, the "universal nation;" and there is a 
truth and an unintended compliment, too, in the sneer. The 
greal and philosophic author of "Spirit of the Laws," has 
a striking and beautiful speculation on the effect which the 
natural character of a country lias on the character of a 
people; and he illustrates it, if I remember rightly, by the 
effeminacy and the impassioned fire of the Oriental/the 
strong, stern energy of the Roman, the beautiful and varied 
genius of the Greek, and the free, brave Bpiril of the 
mountain Switzer. Now, if there be truth, as there is 



25 

beauty in these speculations — which I think cannot be 
doubted — then is the land in which we are placed, calcu- 
lated to foster a national character of ample width and of 
just proportions and of real strength. It is a land includ- 
ing within itself the peculiarities of all other lands. The 
intermingling of families and of whole neighborhoods, east 
and west, and north and south, diffuses the national charac- 
teristics, and blends some of the elements of each into almost 
every individual. A composite of character is thus grad- 
ually formed, which furnishes us with as many fine speci- 
mens of man as, we believe, this world can show. We 
believe that nowhere else can so many balanced, wise, lib- 
eral, well proportioned characters be found, as " in our own 
land." And never have we been so convinced of it as of 
late. The difficulties through which our country recently 
has passed, have developed an amount and quality of pa- 
triotism and true greatness, for which we may be permit- 
ted to be grateful, if we may not be proud. And it has 
developed itself in opposition to seeming interest and in 
the midst of threatening clamors. The public men of a 
Republic like our own, may well be regarded as true re- 
presentatives of its general character. And in every part 
of this great united Confederacy, they have shown a gran- 
deur of patriotism and a largeness of spirit which would 
seem to verify the speculations of Montesqieu, and to show 
that they were bred to their magnificent proportions by 
the sounding and spreading oceans, by the everlasting hills, 
and by the vast illimitable wilderness of our glorious land. 
They have risen, north and south, east and west, and sent 
forth words of majesty and power, and by the most solemn 
oaths of religious patriotism, have sworn that no one shall 
take any part of their one great country from their hearts ; 
that no sacreligious hand should remove from them the 



20 

tomb of Washington, the fields of Bunker Hill, of York- 
town, of Saratoga, and all the consecrated spots of our 
nation's history. They have shown us that, in the wide 
sweep of their affections, the whole of what constitutes 
their country is contained; that there every mountain 
rises, every river runs, every green savannah spreads. 
Oh, who does not feel that he would become a dwarfed 
and a meaner tiling, if he were not permitted to call all 
this fair heritage u my country" and to Bay when he pe- 
riled or listened to the descriptions of her magnificent 
lake-, her winding rivers, her awful mountains, her golden 
hills, her waving fields, and her teeming marts, "this is my 
man, my native land." 

6. My friends, I avow it as the object of all these re- 
marks, to make you love and prize your institutions, your 
Government, and all your country. I think it is the duty 
of every minister of God on this day, and at this crisis, to 
do the same. I might, on suitable occasions, speak of our 
country's danger and her sins ; but now I would speak only of 
her glories and her capabilities for progress and usefulness, 
that you may renew to her your vows of loyalty and love. 
What, — and I speak Avith the full recollection that I am a 
minister of God, — what could be so disastrous to the spread 
and the influence of the gospel as the breaking up of the 
Union of these States? and what could be more favorable to 
the extension of religious knowledge and institutions, than 
the present united Government? Holding myself, therefore, 
as the minister of God, consecrated to the one work of preach- 
ing and extending the gospel and the church of God, I consi- 
der myself as directly engaged in my proper office, when, 
summoned by the civil authority to praise God for national 
blessings, I -elect out our Dniom as the great all-embrac- 
ing blessing under whose shelter, liberty, security, pros- 



27 

perity, the arts and sciences may spread and flourish, and 
with them, to consecrate and bless them all, the religion 
of the Savior. In every blessing which I have enumerated, 
I see a handmaid to the religion of my Savior. In the 
prevalence of just principles of human government, there 
is a preparation for the reception of the laws of God's 
moral administration. In the independence and security 
of the citizen, there is provision made for his attending, 
with an undiverted mind, to the messages of salvation. In 
general prosperity there is a removal of the necessity of a 
constant and crushing care to live, which leaves no leisure 
for serious and inquiring thought on the higher wants and 
duties of our immortal nature. In the diffusion of intelli- 
gence and the enlargement of mind, there is furnished a 
fit preparation for the presentation of that gospel which 
the most penetrating intelligence cannot fully fathom, and 
which the greatest mind must be made greater that it may 
receive. In the rapid spread of population over all the 
country, and in the facilities for speedy and wide com- 
munication, are furnished means for the running to and 
fro upon the earth, of the messages and ministers of salva- 
tion, whereby the knowledge of God shall be increased. 
Oh, what do those ministers of Jesus mean, who would 
break up this great Union, and thus close the avenues to 
the extension of the gospel, which God's providence is 
opening ? I read in the oracles of God of a coming day, 
when " the kingdoms of this earth shall become the king- 
doms of our Lord and of his Christ." Would that even 
now, all the freedom, the education, the wealth, the activ- 
ity, the improvements of the age — would that they were 
all baptized in the love of God, and consecrated to His 
glory, and devoted to His service ! But if, when the serv- 
ants of God look longingly forward from this evil time 



28 

and cry out, "Lord Low long? Why* tarry the wheels 
of Tli\ chariot J." If the answer of God, by his providence 
be, '* Not yet, not yet? then should they, while they ply 
every instrumentality of gospel influence, with new fervor, 

rejoice at the same time, to see the world's progress in lib- 
erty, intelligence, arts, prosperity, wealth, and power. I 
know that the time is coming when the world and all that 
it inherits, shall he laid at the feet of my Jehovah Jesus; 
and I would have the offering rnasmificent as man can. 
make it. Let men speed the car, and stretch the whisper- 
ing wire over every land and every sea, and build their 
cities and dig their gold. I know that the time is coming 
when they shall be given, with all their uses and all their 
powers, into the hands of Him " whose right it is to reign. 11 

My friends and brethren, this Thanksgiving Day finds 
us all in the possession of many and inestimable blessings. 
Those of yon, however, who are living only for time, heed- 
less of eternity, have failed to receive the greatest of all 
God's gifts — the unspeakable gift of his own dear Son for 
your salvation. Yon will have no true cause for rejoicing — 
thouirh von have for thanksgiving: that the offer of salva- 
tion is iK it withdrawn— until you shall make your peace 
witli God, through Jesus Christ, and receive all his provi- 
dential gifts as included under the great gift of redeeming 
mercy. 

For genial skies and abundant harvests; lor a general 
prosperity, without example in the history of the country; 
for the absence of suffering for the necessaries of life, and 
for the possession < >f the means of comfortable living among 
the laboring classes; for the opportunity of affording em- 
ploymenl to the thousands of suffering emigrants upon our 
Bhoree ; for the increased efforts of the charitable, all o\ er 
the land, to elevate the condition and relieve the wants of 



29 

the native and the foreign poor ; for all these things we owe 
that devout thanksgiving which blends with praises for the 
past, new vows of service to God and our fellow creatures, 
for the future. 

As a congregation, my brethren, we have great cause 
for thanksgiving. God has graciously given us prosperity 
and unity of feeling and affection, and has blessed us in our 
efforts to build a new house to His honor and glory. Let 
us prepare to enter into those courts with thanksgiving, 
and into that house with praise. Let us renew our conse- 
cration, and make our gratitude and devotion commensurate 
with our blessings. 

As individuals you are greatly blessed. But little sick- 
ness, or sorrow, or bereavement, has invaded your house- 
holds. 

And remember that all your blessings have come to 
you and abide with you under the shelter of the Union 
of these States, in whose beating heart it is ours to live. 
Then let us join in spirit, with our brethren and country- 
men all over the land, in praising God for these blessings, 
and in praying to Him that they never may be less. 

Love the Union, for upon it hang the hopes of humanity 
and religion. 

Cherish the Union. She is committed to our care. She 
was born in an hour of peril and of darkness. She was 
cradled on an open field of battle and of blood. Storms 
and tempests beat upon her unsheltered and homeless 
childhood. She grew up into benignant loveliness under 
no gentle nurture. For more than half a century she has 
been the guardian angel of the Republic. Cherish and 
love the Union ! 



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